I was sick for over a year before I landed in the hospital in October with a BG of 545. The doctors were surprised that my organs had not begun shutting down because it had gone on for so long. I was given a meter, stips and a little bit of education before being released from the hospital five days later. I was diagnosed with Type 1. I was so relieved and greatful to still be alive that I did not suffer any grieving or depression until the middle of January. I can tell you from my experience that the grieving came from losing my life as I had known it up to my diagnosis. The depression came from the financial straights created by the cost of monthly supplies and insulin to keep myself alive. My sanity is maintained by the fact that I can self-monitor, as it gives me the ability to control my BG and have an instant reward/consequence visual of my efforts at my new lifestyle vs. backsliding to my old one. The cost of the strips however, adds to the depression.

Four months ago I was diagnosed with type-2 and I found that monitoring my BG was an incredably helpful tool. I agree with Kinget. When I know my numbers I can adjust diet and exercise accordingly.
The ability to monitor has rewarded me with a 25 lb. loss, and clear understanding of how food affects personal glucose levels.
Guess what?
My BG is running 90-100, Normal range for someone with out the disease.

DO NOT UNDER-ESTIMATE DIABETES!!! It CAN, and WILL, destroy your body; your sight, your nervous system, teeth and gums, and your HEART.!
Loss of feeling in the bottom of your feet.? If you have severe Diabetic nerve damage...Stubbing a toe could lead to gangrious infection and loss of a leg.

"The authors say that self monitoring in addition to standardised usual care is unlikely to provide this group of patients with significant lifetime health benefits or be cost effective for the NHS. They conclude: “This study therefore provides no convincing evidence for routinely recommending self monitoring to patients with non-insulin treated type 2 diabetes". (from above article)

This "group of patients" could be depressed and full of anxiety. Guess what?......This can go along with Diabetes, too!!
When my BG was very high I was confused, always tired, vomiting, and excessive diarreah....This went on for several months...before I found out I had diabeties

As COST goes...Give monitoring kits away...If someone chooses to help themselves,.. give the testing supplies away!!

All the afore mentioned problems; high BP., excessive weight, little physical activity ,will improve with self-care.
If a person continues using test supplies,.. it leads to less hospital bills,etc. If they don't continue you've lost the cost a kit....and gained tremendous cost in Dr. bills,hospital bills,etc.

Telling a couch-potato they need to excercise for their health...You'll maybe get a grunt in response. Telling them their eyesight will be gone in 6 months could get their attention.

The stats are so high for type-2.....Educate!!!
Real Public awareness of the symptoms!!
I never knew a lot of the sympotms until I went diligently researching.. which sent me to the DR.
The symptoms of Diabetes should be in evey local news broadcast!!!

Thank you DLife for suppling me with the info I needed to send me to the Doctor !! :)

It is all about educating the patient and having the maturity of mind to take responsibilty for one's own health. We as a society, should not expect for the medical community to be responsible for the public.

If a proper diet was taken, the stress & constant monitoring is unnecessary.
When one is diagnosed with t2 diabetes (and even before, if they would rather not be diagnosed at all!), sugars and carbohydrates from all processed foods must be eliminated.
Get rid of the carbs & get rid of the depression.

It seems that monitoring would be very beneficial if the idea were given out that it was part of self-management and that people, for example, could map out which foods raised their BG and avoided such foods. Of course, they might find out that they wound up on a low carbohydrate diet which might cause depression in Dr Judit Simon and colleagues from the University of Oxford.

I find that I have better control over my diabetes because I do test. Before it was always out of control. Daily monitoring has helped me better learn to manage my diabetes.

I like to self-monitor - helps me figure out what foods "work" and what ones don't (I'm new at this - diagnosed in January, 2008). I would be anxious if I didn't know my numbers.

As I've noted both in comments on Amy Tenderlich's blog (DiabetesMine) and in my own blog on Tudiabetes, the study covered too small a sample, over too short a period of time, to draw realistic conclusions on the mental health effects. (The study did show greater improvement in the group who were self-monitoring than in the control group.) In addition, the overriding issue in the UK National Health Service is to lower the costs of care, so there is already a built-in bias to disprove the cost-effectiveness of self-monitoring. I have also noted that there are multiple issues involved in the use of self-monitoring, all of which have to be resolved either at the doctor-patient level (for the individual patient) or at the institutional level (for persons with diabetes or "pre-diabetes") for self-monitoring to be both efficient and effective.

Self monitoring can be depressing--if you don't know what to do with the information or you don't have an adequate support network to deal with the diabetes.

My self-monitoring campaign began with my diagnosis. I was at 345 and very ill with two infections.

Information was the key, however. I didn't want to lose limbs or organs like members of my husband's family. I said I was going to be the best diabetic possible.

As a result, the self-monitoring campaign took my A1c from over 7 to normal--4.9 in a year. Since then, it has helped me to maintain in the 4.9-5.1 range for the last 2 years.

I've lost more than 70 pounds and kept them off. I celebrated by taking an adventure trek to the Ice Hotel in Canada. I will mark my third year of diabetes by hiking through Glacier National Park and leaving my healthier buddies eating my dust on the trail!

I cannot imagine how sick I could be still without self monitoring, so I have serious concerns about this study. Self-monitoring is not a panacea. Were the participants given good, up-to-date information regarding diabetes management? What medical treatments did they receive? Were any diabetic support groups available?

I feel just the opposite. When I wasn't monitoring myself during a health crisis of sorts lasting 4 months, I was more depressed about my diabetes than when I'm monitoring. When I know my numbers, I know what I have to do (diet and exercise, because I'm not on meds) to get them where I want to be.

Low carb diets aren't any more popular over in the UK than they are in the US.